Cast:
Tobin Bell (Jigsaw / John Kramer), Costas Mandylor (Detective Hoffman), Scott Patterson (Agent Strahm), Betsy Russell (Jill), Lyriq Bent (Rigg), Athena Karkanis (Agent Perez), Justin Louis (Art), Donnie Wahlberg (Eric Matthews), Angus Macfadyen (Jeff), Bahar Soomekh (Lynn), Dina Meyer (Kerry), Mike Realba (Fisk), and Marty Adams (Ivan) Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (#2102 - Saw II, #2269 - Saw III)
Review:
Maybe there was an initial idea that seemed interesting in theory when trying to branch the franchise further from the inevitable trap that started this franchise. From the beginning, you had a series with a main focus on killer traps and a guy doomed to die from terminal cancer at some point that had a curiosity for what people would do for their lives. Sure, the first two sequels probably teetered on the verge of mediocrity, but at least they had a bit of Shawnee Smith to pair with Tobin Bell...until III decided to kill both of them off. But here we are with a fourth film that has a few returning characters (as played by Wahlberg, Bent, Mandylor, and very brief time spent with Macfadyen and Meyer) and the gimmick of having recordings and flashbacks for Bell to try and hold up an attempt at doing more of the same. This was the first script of the series to not have involvement from Leigh Whannell, with Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan taking over; the duo would write Saw IV all the way to Saw 3D (2010), and apparently a handful of ideas they didn't do in IV were recycled for Saw V (2008). This was the third of four Saw movies directed by Bousman (David Hackl had to bow out due to an immediate family issue), who returned to the series with Spiral in 2021.
If you really think about it, this is basically the Star Trek Generations of the series. It tries to bridge the adversary and main focus of the past with the intended successor...and it doesn't do either particularly well. Don't even try to get me on the autopsy scene, I just kept thinking how everything looked so white. You get some killer traps with a bit of terror and the inevitable twist that arises in the ending to set up the inevitable next movie because hey, we can't take more than a year off (2004-2010 saw seven Saw movies), time is money. 92 minutes is at least a compliment in that any more time spent in such a meandering universe that is a sequel really would be like torture, particularly since Saw IV in fact runs parallel to Saw III. Even the violence seems to be on autopilot, although it may very well be a case that a movie like this just can't be as shocking the fourth time around. It isn't unsettling in the parts that matter, and the fact that the twist of the movie borders on a character that we barely hear that much from (i.e. the one set to be the villain for the next couple of movies) really makes this a bummer to actually try and watch. Its attempts at reminding you about John Kramer (i.e. he had a wife and a would-be son) makes this seem more of an epilogue than a real movie. The missing kid from the last movie is, well, not exactly mentioned, so I guess the journey (mentally, anyway) of the guy from the last movie ending suddenly means nothing either. It doesn't feel mean to reveal that IV plays parallel to III, mainly it has to play with the fact that yes, a cop would be missing for six months because...uh, games to play. The game that ties the whole movie together (one in which obviously the way to approach each room with a clue is to just brute-force it) might as well be constructed of straw, because it basically tries to fudge the riddle so that way the audience will be confused (if they weren't already befuddled by the grungy look of the movie, complete with editing choices) for as long as possible. Nobody really shines in the movie, unless you count Bell's half-voiceover half-standing performance in a sea of listless stuff. I suppose it is a positive the series isn't trying for comedy or self-parody, but it really just feels like the work by committee rather than a consistently interesting movie. The ride only works for those with time to kill but it just disappoints me more than anything. As a whole, Saw IV is a low point of a series that clearly shows signs of needing rest but instead lands on a precarious position of dubious ideas to spook people with tired execution and middling promises that cannot possibly go lower from here (oh who are we kidding).
Overall, I give it 5 out of 10 stars.
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